Monetize Your Life
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According the Evernote blog announcement, we need to prepare ourselves, come the 14th of July
We’re making an announcement about something new. Something we’ve been working on for a little while. Something that will change the way you interact with Evernote, and, maybe even, change how you think about Evernote.
Speculation is rife about the Evernote blog announcement about what July 14th will bring. So what is the evernote announcement on the 14th July going to be? This is my personal Evernote wishlist Continue reading »
none of which will end up being the July 14th Surprise no doubt.
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Critical to the way you use your time is the amount of skills you are able to call on to process free time into meaningful endeavours. If all you know how to do is play on that shiny console your free time options are pretty reduced. So how do we start adding to our skill set? Where to start, where to end?
What is Know What You Don’t Know?
Know what you don’t know is a systematic process of working backward from a desired goal or skill detailing the knowledge you need to get from your current level of knowledge.
Why use Know What You Don’t Know?
The frustration caused by how vast a topic can seems when looking at it as a whole is often the reason used for giving up or worse still not trying. I know the first time I tried to teach myself guitar I fell into this trap. I knew what a guitar should sound like, so I went out and bought one along with a song book. For a week I suffered as I sat, for hours whacking at different bits of the book unsuccessfully. A month later a string broke and I never played that guitar again, eventually selling it when I got a good offer for it. I failed. I know now though that it had nothing to do with how hard the guitar is to learn but had everything to do with me not having any clue what I needed to know and in what order I needed to learn it.
Know What You Don’t Know is for me the simplest way to learn a new skill, it’s simply a matter of at a very high level figuring out what is involved in learning your new skill. This is really important in order to acquire a well rounded study program as well. I often find that I tend to spend more time on the excercises I enjoy rather than the ones that I need to work on. This well rounded approach has tons of knock on benefits as well. As an example the second time I tried to learn to play the guitar I faired a lot better until I got a stuck with a couple of barre chords. Try as I might I did not have the dexterity to hold the chord and produce a clear crisp sound.
At first I kept at it trying over and over and it didn’t help. I think it actually got worse as I started to get frustrated and lose my cool. Having knowledge of all the things I needed to learn I kept on practicing in all the areas I knew I had to learn. A week later I could play the barre chords easily. As it happens I just didn’t have the strength when I started. What was critical here was the fact that I knew that that barre chord was the be all and end all of my guitar career and I was able to focus on other areas of my playing which ultimately built my skill and dexterity to the point where I succeeded. I have no doubt that it would have taken me twice as long or longer to master that had I kept at only that.
Know What You Don’t Know gives you confidence and direction and keeps you working toward your goal.
If this sounds good to you my next post will be a practical example of how to use Know What You Don’t Know to learn anything.
How to use know what you don’t know a practical example.
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Are these three words ruining your life an interesting discussion about the psychology of failure/success by Jonathan Mead on the Zen Habits blog
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Twenty posts in and it still astounds me how hard it is for me to put my name to my writing and send it into the world. I’ve spent a lot of the last few months on my craft, working out what words best describe that voice that lurks at the back of my mind the voice that is the source of my questions and the spark for my writing. I’d like to think my writing is not just that voice but a combination of that and something more. The compulsion is what intrigues me. The compulsion to find a soap box and let go of the ideas knocking about in this not so old head. Time for me is like a sitcom that can only be enjoyed in context. Friends is one of my favourite shows of all time but 10 years earlier it would have made no sense and 10 years later it’s already losing relevance. Looking at my writing I have similar feeling each day that passes between an idea and the release of that idea on paper or a screen it becomes less relevant, less real. Until the idea like grapes left to long on the vine spoil and ferment leaving nothing but regret at a seasons work wasted for a few days laziness. Time is now, everything else is dreaming or remembering. There is no time in the future and all the time in the past has been used up. Go forth and kick ass, 20 posts in and I’m starting to feel it.
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Know What You Don’t Know is the process I use to approach pretty much every new skill I want to add to my box of tricks. I’ll run you through at a very high level how you can use Know What You Don’t Know to put together a blogging action plan.
Step 1 – What do we need to know
In a very Covey way we begin with the end in mind.
What is the desired outcome?
We would like to learn how to build a successful blog.
On a high level what would this entail?
If we had no clue at this point it’s time to go do some research. For Dummies books are very useful at this stage as is hanging around in forums as you’ll pick up the terminology that you’ll soon be fluent in.
For me at the highest level Blogging comprises – Good Content, Good Design and Good Promotion.
During step one we are trying to be as general as possible.
Step 2 – What is Good?
Typically at this point I will spend time looking for examples of Good Content, Good Design and Good Promotion. You’re probably reading blogs with these elements already. Subscribe to these good examples and read them religiously. Study the structure of their content, look at what design elements Good sites have in common and start studying how these sites promote themselves. Do a search, are they paying for advertising, relying on social networking site and word of mouth.
Write down what you notice when things don’t make sense take some time and do some research.
At this point if we were to write down your total knowledge on blogging should have lists that look something like the this except a lot longer (this is just an example):
Content | Design | Promotion |
useful links | Domain name | Social Media |
bullet points | Ads placed close to text | RSS and E-mail placement |
Length of post | Custom banner | Blog roll use and placement |
pictures | simple theme style | SEO and keywords used? |
scannable | Content Management system | incentives – free e-books etc. |
Make this list as long as you need it to be and keep adding to it. I suggest you use a tool like Evernote which allows you to access your notes regardless of whose computer you’re working on or just to keep a notebook and with you and constantly update your list.
Step –3 Plan and Research
Go through each of the items in your list and decide in what order you need to know them and then research them. Find websites, books, forums and chat rooms and get as much information as you can on each subject you’ve listed.
By going through this process you will be in a position to find the right resources at the right times. Don’t be surprised if you find that for every item you research you find 4 more items to add to your list that you need to research.
The beauty of this system is that as you add items in step 2 you get sight of the bigger picture and you start gaining confidence in what you know and what you still need to learn. Add one or a couple of these items to your to do list each day and you’ll quickly find your knowledge increasing.
Disclaimer:
Using Know What You Don’t Know will not turn you into the next Darren Rowse or John Mayer. It will give you a framework to learn what they learnt in a structured way. You still need to do the hard work of actually learning and applying and practicing. What this system does do is help you guage your own progress.
Useful Link
Are these three words ruining your life an interesting discussion about the psychology of failure/success by Jonathan Mead on the Zen Habits blog
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Lessons from Racists how to manage attacks via your comments section
As it happens I have an alter ego who writes at mydl, which is the geekronym for My digital life a South African digital lifestyle blogging site which I contribute to. The last week has been extremely emotionally charged with many of those problems that we South Africans tend to avoid bubbling to the surface. For those not living within our lovely border , shame on you!! Ok now that I’ve got that out of my system essentially what’s happened is Canada has granted political asylum to Brandon Huntley, a South African national living in Canada illegally. See more in my post Canadians must not be very clever just ask Brandon Huntley
The Issues in a Nutshell
For more on this see the link above to my post on mydl. What I’m here to discuss is the manner in which this story brought to the surface a number of issues which we as a country have just been to damn polite to discuss.
Racism is still rife in South Africa
I think the most important lesson I’ve learnt this week is that racism is still alive and kicking in South Africa. The large number of hateful and absurdly ignorant comments that flew back and forth this week really knocked the stuffing out of me until I realized, Brandon Huntley might just be the savior of our democracy. Brandon Huntley and he’s sneaky underhanded attempt to remain in Canada has started a dialog that should have begun 15 years ago. We need to release the pressure bubbling below the lid of political correctness and give space for expression of ideas we dislike and disapprove of. Brandon Huntley and his cheap trick which is now under judicial review in Canada has given a voice to racism and I’m actually happy to hear it.
Lessons on Managing comment flaming
For me everyday on mydl is a learning experience and never more so than this week past. Some of the best lessons which I think apply to any kind comment flaming on blogs or in normal social :
Some very tasty comment discussions and lots of lessons on how not to handle comments:
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